Twenty Eight Years

Happy Birthday, me!

I never imagined that on my 28th birthday I'd be totally focused on someone else's birthday that wouldn't be for another 198 days. I never imagined on my 28th birthday I'd be married to the kind of man who I knew I'd spend my whole life with. I never imagined on my 28th birthday there would be a bitter cold wind blowing outside with a bright California sun overhead. I suppose I never imagined much about my 28th birthday. I don't think I had a plan past 25. Nothing I planned for the first 25 years happened like I imagined it would. That makes me glad that I didn't plan any further because the stuff I never imagined...some of it's brilliantly beyond my imagination.

Thursday Thirteen #72

Thirteen Things about Allie @ Christmas1. I'm rather smug about the fact that I'm completely done preparing for Christmas, gifts are wrapped and food is purchased. 2. My favorite Christmas ornament used to be my Grinch ornament but this year I got an Our First Christmas Ornament that knocked it out of first place. 3. The only time I've ever tried to snow board I broke my tailbone so instead I love to go to the snow and have a snowball fight while everyone else is speeding down the slopes. 4. My favorite Christmas song is "Baby It's Cold Outside" but my favorite Christmas Carol is "O Holy Night" 5. I used to make my own hot chocolate and marshmallows for Christmas gifts to other people, the year I switched to store bought gifts no one noticed...5 years later people started asking about it. 6. I have a really hard time making my Christmas list now that I am Christian because I feel very guilty about telling people how to show their love for me. This means that usually I like the presents that I get that aren't on my list MUCH more than the one's I've asked for. 7. I bought Christmas stockings this year for Children I do not have yet so that they will match the set that I got for myself and the Hubby 8. I usually buy my Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving. This year it was too close to the heating vent and we had to replace it last week. 9. I want a puppy from Santa Claus but I can't have one because I live in a rental. 10. My least favorite part of Christmas dinner prep is peeling things. Usually I try to get someone else to do that part. 11. My favorite thing at Christmas dinner is the Cranberry Relish that my Aunt Penny taught me to make when I was 11. 12. One year I got more presents from my extended family than my parents could fit in the car. I decided that year that when I grew up I'd limit my kids to 3 presents from me. I was 12. 13. This is my first Thursday Thirteen. I'm super excited about it. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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The Gnashing of Teeth

I have my own personal hell. It's snappy, gnashy and every person has a one liner they feel obligated to get in. I've been there. But not lately.

This weekend I spent in a different kind of place. My little heaven on earth. My solitude got a reprieve in the form of some of our friends G & J. No not Gin and Juice. People. I'll call one Batman and the other one Pickles. So Batman and Pickles spent the weekend. I laughed so hard that I cried. I loved it.

Pickles brings out the best in me. She makes me silly. She makes me love well. She makes me play air piano while Batman plays air guitar and my husband plays air drums and she dances like a ballerina the whole time to the Trans Siberian Orchestra. She catchs me off guard and she makes me feel that it's ok to be a dork. She's aDORKable. And I heart her.

Batman is my hero in the shadows. The kind of guy that makes me proud. I'm proud to be friends with someone who is so selfless in his ability to help others. He is the hero of friendship. He moves heavy objects without so much as a whimper of complaint. He drives to the far ends of the earth to save you from the things that hide under the bed at night. He has a baseball bat and he's willing to use it. But when he doesn't have on his hero outfit he's just a guy, a video game playing, board game competing hell of a great guy.

Combine those two great people with the Hubby. That man that makes my soul feel like it doesn't need to search. The man who's willing to build furniture with a moments notice and move every shelf in the house so that there is room for my whimsical love of redecorating the room...again. The boy who stood with me in the rain turned into such a brilliant man. A man who would let someone move in to feel safe one moment and who would do the dance from Grease lightening to make them laugh a second later.

It was an awesome weekend. It was a brilliant show of laughter, life and love. And there I was... a part of it but not responsible for it. It was beautiful.

Joy is an Air Band in the Livingroom

Joy (day whatever it is)

The pillow fight.

The Realization of Joy (Day 10)

I think one of the most powerful things that ever happened to me was the moment I discovered that I was worthy of God's grace. There was this great moment of powerful joy. For a long time I thought that happiness was in knowing the Lord. As I have grown as a Christian I have come to the realization that I don't know the Lord very well at all and that I will always be in a search to know him better. This has lead me to ask what that feeling of Joy was. I have now come to the unprofessional opinion that the specific type of Joy that I felt was the realization of self worth. Realizing that you deserve joy is very powerful. Until that moment that you have it you might always feel that you're not quite doing it right or that you don't deserve anything better or that you are doomed to fail. But in one moment you can discover that Joy is something of great value and while other people can inspire it you are responsible for finding it in yourself and using it to inspire others. Realizing that you are your own Joy Stealer will be one of those "duh" moments that we all dread. But what you do with it... now that's the awe inspiring part.

Joy Stealers Go Away (Day 9- late is better than never)

So yesterday was all about Joy stealers. Guess which one of these things tried to steal my joy...

1.I got up to find a rain storm would make my hour and a half drive to training into what I thought would be a two and a half hour drive.

2.Turns out it was more like 3 and I was late. I passed 3 accidents on the way to the mtg place.

3. I didn't have a pepsi all day and I didn't get to eat lunch because I was trying to make up for the fact that I was running late by mingling with big wigs during my lunch break.

4. The hormone pills finally managed to make a menstrual cycle and I spent 6 hours in one day in a car and another 6 sitting in a class.

5. I almost ran out of gas on the way home,but I had no cash so I had to go home and then back to the gas station.

6. There was nothing to eat for dinner TV.

7. The christmas tree was placed too close to the heating vent and is now VERY dry. Thanks to several days at 72 degrees while we watched babies. Now we'll be taking the whole tree down this week and then putting up a new one before our party on Saturday and while watching my nephew overnight for the first time.

8. None of the above. Joy can not be stolen. It is something you give yourself or you take away from yourself...although all these things did happen.

Monday's Joy (day 8)

Ahh the joy of guilt...err... I mean candies. So far I've made fudge, peppermint bark, peanut butter fudge, cowboy cookies, rum balls and peanut butter kiss cookies.

Still on the list...sugar cookies, a pie for Christmas and possibly some chocolate chip cookies.

Yum...the joy of fudge...

Day 5 of Joy

Some glad morning when this life is o'er,

I'll fly away;

To a home on God's celestial shore,

I'll fly away (I'll fly away).

[Chorus]I'll fly away, Oh Glory

I'll fly away; (in the morning)

When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,

I'll fly away (I'll fly away).

When the shadows of this life have gone,

I'll fly away;

Like a bird from prison bars has flown,

I'll fly away (I'll fly away)

[Chorus]I'll fly away, Oh Glory

I'll fly away; (in the morning)

When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,

I'll fly away (I'll fly away).

Just a few more weary days and then,

I'll fly away;

To a land where joy shall never end,

I'll fly away (I'll fly away)

[Chorus]I'll fly away, Oh Glory

I'll fly away; (in the morning)

When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,

I'll fly away (I'll fly away).

Joy Day 4

So one of the things that has given me a great deal of joy this year is decorating our first Christmas as a married couple. I got lucky in that the sage green and burgundy combination that runs throughout our house was very easy to tie into a Christmas Theme... see for yourself...

This is our living room with Christmas tree and the piano I'm using for a fake mantle because we don't have one.

This is the Christmas Village that is outside our bathroom door on the way to the Kitchen. I painted it with my Aunt Penny before she died.

I love these pine garlands and have them placed around my house along with random cinnamon scented piles of pinecones to give my house that Country Christmas feel.

That Poinsetta was almost $20.00 and it's the only one in my house but I didn't know what else to do to this side of the room to make it festive. I replaced all my sconce candles with candy cane striped ones to add color to the walls.

My favorite thing this year is the tree covered with both of our family ornaments and the glass "our first christmas" ornament we got as a wedding present.

Love is sharing the holiday traditions.

Joy Day 3

When I was little I wanted to be famous. Not famous like the President or a person on TV. I wanted to be a rock star. The closest I ever got was dancing on a bar once with a few girlfriends the year after I got out of college. And for the record...we were sober... it just sounded like fun.

For me there is a great deal of joy in watching a person really rock the house. When the crowd is into to it and the band is loving what they do I feel a great amount of happiness. I think that Joy comes from the realization that Lord wants us to have fellowship and to express our joy in groups.

I wanted to be a rocker girl but instead my audience is a bunch of two and three year olds. Every Wednesday night I work the baby nursery at my church I try to at least once get all the kids to sing a song together. I rock the house with my ring around the rosey. We bust a move to the hokey pokey. The crowd eats it up. And there in that moment of pure joy we are celebrating the life the Lord gave us. One where we have each other...and sometimes a great solo.

Day Two of Joy

So I decided to Google for Images of Joy this morning. Don't do it. It's a complete waste. In fact, I can say it was a Joy killer. Except this picture from Frederick Olsen.

As a child I feared the water. I remember at some point being thrown into my Uncle K's pool and freaking out because I thought there were sharks. After that water was horrible. I liked the bath tub but other than that I was content to playing in the sprinkler all summer. One year my mom decided to help me kick the fear addiction. Swimming lessons terrified me and thrilled me all at the same time. Weeks later I would make my way all the way around my mom's friends pool with my hands on the edge and swim under water holding my breath. It was a complete moment of freedom.

Now 20 or more years later I can recall many many summers in my small home town swimming at the local community pool blocks from my house which my mother let me walk to before it opened and at which I stayed every day with my friends until it was closed. Every. Single.Day. I was surrounded by laughter, confidence and the smell of banana boat. My hot pink bathing suit and my 3 month in the sun tan both faded before Sept. every year. But I remember even now when I jump into a pool that first moment when fear turned into absolute excitement. I remember the joy of knowing it would be ok.

A Month of Joy

Faith lifts theme this month is Joy. Like it says in Galatians 5:22 "The fruit of the spirit is joy, love and peace."

For the month of December each day I am going to put forth an effort to post about joy. Today I will start with a picture

Night Snow by Capolina

"Stand still and consider the wonderous works of God" Job 37:14

Snowfall at night is one of my favorite sites. I live in California. I live in the middle of a central valley that is vast and flat in every direction. I was blessed with a childhood here that kept me a mere drive from every adventure imaginable. I was 2 hours from the beach. I was 2 hours from the snow. I was 2 hours from the mountains, desert or forest. I was 2 hours from all of the wonders of nature and it kept me as a child certain that there was more to life than what meets the eye. Somethings are too magestic to just be "because"